New Media and Old School Track and Field?

Just finished hosting the conference track meet. Talk about a marathon...

There's something about track and field that does not lend itself to new media...or marketing for that matter. Indoor track has to be the worst spectator sport on the indoor sports docket. Is there anyone besides parents that will sit through eight hours of events for two days?

So, we tried a new strategy--something others have probably used as well, but new to us. We promoted events instead of promoting the meet. And, it seemed to work.

Going into the meet, we picked a half dozen events in the two-day period that were going to feature what we thought were pretty spectacular battles. Then, we adjusted our print media and online media to promote those specific battles. I alerted local media for story lines on each of those battles. We used our Twitter feeds and Facebook page to promote the events. We also dropped a line to the fan message board.

What happened was interesting. Taking an informal visual survey, I noticed that during those event times, the attendance was the highest. And for our biggest event, a battle in the men's mile on Saturday, the arena was actually rocking like a rival basketball game. Now that is what track and field can bring to the table!

The only problem with this approach is that it doesn't sit well with most coaches. They are fiercely protective of the idea that track and field events should be covered equitably, virtually ignoring the drawing power that some events create. They know people want to see only certain events, but they don't want us to promote it that way. Maybe it's time to get track and field into the 21st century?